A.Word.A.Day

A.Word.A.Day--devoir

devoir (duh-VWAR) noun

1. Duty; responsibility.

2. An act of respect or courtesy.

[From Middle English devoir (duty), from Old French, from Latin debere
(to owe). Ultimately from Indo-European root ghebh- (to give or receive)
that is also the forefather of such words as give, have, endeavor, handle,
able, and duty.]

"There are no new revelations in these books but the authors have done
their devoir."
Alice Thomas Ellis; I Don't Know How They Did It; The Daily Telegraph
(London, UK); Oct 19, 2002.

"The famous dictum attributed to P.T. Barnum, that there's a sucker born
every minute, has often been validated, but five of them on the same
City Council? As an experience-hardened, moderately cynical politician,
I am forced by this embarrassing piece of colossal bumbling to pay my
devoir to Friedrich von Schiller's lament: 'Against stupidity, the very
gods themselves contend in vain.'"
Public Pulse; Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska); Sep 9, 2001.

This week's theme: unusual words.

X-Bonus

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both
instances there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged.
And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the
air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
-William O. Douglas, judge (1898-1980)

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